Wednesday, October 10, 2012

After living in year round winter for nearly 6 years, I’d gradually developed a nasty skin rash grown from the wearing of too many clothes in too much cold for way too long. It was clearly time to cure myself of this unsightly dermatitis. Extensive research made it apparent that the Indian Ocean’s warm water currents would be the best available treatment.

Another summer of powder, beautiful women, and ‘Fernet y Coca' in Argentina still held it’s allure, but this rash was beginning to spread to my...psyche.

Mawi, Lombok. August 2012.

On the way to Desert Point, Lombok. August, 2012.

On the 4th of July, via a potentially alcohol assisted impulse, I bought a plane ticket to Indonesia for a 60-day trip leaving on July 21st.

After finding my seat on the plane, all I could think was: “What the hell am I doing out here?”

Saturday, December 11, 2010

From RAIN to POW to McConkey'sThepouring rainlast night didn't get me too fired up. Waking up to 2 inches ofslopin the valley didn't make me wanna leave the house. Waiting inside Dave's Deli like awimp (because I didn't wanna wait in the rain and whipping wind with 50 others in KT line) didn't exactly make my blood boil for sick pow. But, I gotta admit the snow was prettygoddamn good today. Once I actually got on the mountain the snow was actually damn fun. The fresh stuff was sweet, the tracked up snow was hacky, and the beat up snow was set up likef#$king cement!Some big sh#t went down today. IncludingMcConkey's (it's only December 6th Humans)!!!!!!!!!!Some dude hit McConkey's and I didn't see it but, I was able to interview a guy who saw. "He came off the top, jumped, then a big jump, landed, but it wasn't tight. Maybe it was my angle but it looked like he missed the trees by this much(holding his hands out about 2 feet wide)."So, yeah, I guess, that, it's, uh, ON!

There was a good sized line at the Funi at 9am. They ended up being the very first people to find out that the conditions weren't that rad. The sun had cooked the snow a bit yesterday and the wind pressed it way down.

I was only sinking in about 1 inch when skiing the fresh snow on Headwall. That said, it was fun skiing and some people were throwing down in Cornice 2. I saw some solid tracks in "No Way Out". Most skiers were milking the Reverse Traverse all day but there was also some good snow off Shirley in Lower Granite Chief.

Tomorrow's forecast........Rain. We'll update you tomorrow morning early on what is actually happening here in Squaw Valley USA.

I woke up in the PISSING RAIN today. Kinda bummed. I walked thru the rain for 20 minutes to the lift and arrived soaked. I was riding the chair over the fingers in the rain when the sun came out and BAM! It was an instant sick powder day with NO ONE OUT!!! This video was shot between 9:30am and 11:00am on Dec. 3rd, 2010.

Today it went bluebird. It was a funny kind of day where everyone seemed to be really... really Happy!

But how could you blame them, who would not be in a great mood when it's not even Thanksgiving and the mountain is almost compleatly filled in. People are Fired UP!

After the unbelivable day of skiing which saw the opening of Shirley Lake and Tower 16 it was off to the Chamois where Jt Holmes reiterated the mood of the day by saying, "Timy Dutton and I were hitting this little 4 footer and these guys were like 'Hell Yeah, get it!' in two weeks if I hit the same jump they will be calling me a Fag."

The past two days were so deep we renamed what we were doing out there from powder skiing to powder spelunking.

Last night's storm was different. The newest 16 inches were much wetter than the blower of the previous days and much more wind packed. Today, skiers were staying on top and ripping full-bore for the first time this season (this 4 day old season). It was the first day you were seeing flips, spins, technical lines, and as always at Squawllywood - ridiculous risks being taken. Once the mountain opens more terrain I guarantee you'll be seeing some ludicrous shit going down.

Today also marked a huge mental change at Squaw. Skier's switched from being completely blown away that it's this good this early to: all-systems-go, no friends on a powder day, lets f#@king rip it, get the hell outta my way!

Winds were insane at times today and I mildly soiled my pants (luckily they are brown) on a mid-day Red Dog ride. Red Dog is by far the scariest lift at Squaw. Add 80 mph gusts and me dangling over the gap to that, and yes, you get poo. Patrol actually closed the chair for about an hour right after that soiling.

Tomorrow's forecast is for a FULL-ON BLUEBIRD POWDER DAY. Patrol is talking about getting Shirley Lake and Siberia open. Kangaroo Kicker anyone? Heads up for the East winds tomorrow, tho. It looking like a classic Tonopah Low.